Fleet McCain

He could sell just one of these to pay for the southeast Asia trips!  No?   Oh well, he'll need them to amuse himself come November!

http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/McCain_s_Presidential_Campaign_Just_Vi...

And just one of these cars is in John's name...nice of Cindy to allow him to have one.  And the one she drives?  In the name of her family's beer business with the license plate "Ms Bud."  (can't give up her pageant days I suppose...okay, I'll quit being snarky).

compared to How many Houses and Tanning Bed under the current economic news and circumstances? I'm having trouble formulating a guess. Will this get More attention (from average Americans) or less than the other two?

Cause I would love to rant and rave about the Party of St00P1d right now. Don't even care if it's unproductive. Sometimes, you gotta regurgitate all the backasswards shitdrivel that seeps into your ears and then causes mini-brain explosions when St00P1d meets rational.  I know ya'll know what I'm talking about.  

that he thinks the Chairman of the FEC should resign, he really meant it, afterall?

Great work as always.

Al, love you bro, but you are being petty: the three golf carts don't count as 'cars'.  At best they were purchased for getting drunk and fucking around in Sun City.

That leaves ten cars for seven houses.

Sounds about right.

The McCains, obviously, devote mad transpo cash for the private jet--so they are pretty conservative when it comes to spending on cars for their homes.

And, more, when you rent limos for social events you don't need expensive cars to impress.

Oh, the photos aren't correct with respect with the year and model.

At least one car is a suped-up Maverick--don't cha know.

I wonder if he splurged on Cindy's money and purchased the origional, first Marverick that came off the production line?

Steven - Which photo do you say is not correct?

Please go there and rec'd up!

Are you sure its not a Trabbi with a Maverick shell?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant

Well, Al, is there a suped-up Maverick in these picks?

Now up on digg to digg:

http://digg.com/2008_us_elections/Which_one_is_the_elitist_again

His Dad may have had a fleet on the Pacific but John III has at least 2 fleets of cars in his garage.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/21/135938/882/500/605634

amk

Steven - As far as I know the cars in those photos represent the models listed below. I know nothing of a Maverick or any other make there. While it's possible that I'm not correct, playing silly games when all that would suffice would be: "Hey, the third from the right on the second row is really an X." This isn't about one-up-man-ship or trivia. It's about getting it right. If you don't care that this blog gets it right, then you can't care very much about it's mission. So spill it, if you got it: Is one or more of those cars wrong? And if so which? Or not?

Amk - You too: I'm growing bitchy with your over-use of the word "fuck" in headlines. It makes this place look like a high school bathroom. While there's no prohibition here on any word, we all expect that they be used artfully and not gratuitously.

In both cases, you're being self-indulgent and distracting to missions much larger than you or me. Get your asses in gear: it's going to be a hard and dangerous sprint to the finish line. Who has time or energy for these kinds of distractions?

McCain II was in charge of Navy Seaplane searches for the enemy during the Guadalcanal campaigns. For some reason he failed to follow orders to maintain a robust forward search screen in the northern approaches to the Landing area.

A bunch of allied ships were shot up in a surprise night fight and thousands of sailors went down in shark infested waters. That in turn caused the Naval units to flee leaving the Marines and other ground forces on the island stranded.

It runs in the family.

I suppose I don't find it curious that Palin is meeting with Karzai at the UN tomorrow. After all, the GOP and Rove would not want her to meet with an actual leader of significance, lest she cause a diplomatic incident.

However, I find it more revealing that Palin is meeting with the thuggish right-wing leader of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe. This is the guy who used his postion as Head of State to bad mouth Obama during the primary and interfere in our election. Uribe also has notorious ties to right-wing paramilitary groups who have killed union members and carried out terrorist attacks against Uribe's domestic opposition.

But the US corporate media will never tell you these things. They will rant and rave about Chavez and Castro, though. But when it comes to autocratic right-wing leaders, their silence is deafening.

Snarky, snarky...  Sirota's bent out of shape that Barack might include Paulson in a transitional phase.

I thought "change" meant, um, change.  I guess not...

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8386

Al, I am not playing games, and you're are wierding-out.

No, of course I don't support your mission.

You are not Kurtz and I am not on a dilapidated boat going into the heart of Africa on a mission.

Got it?

Don't get too fucking full of yourself Al. Lighten up and don't get prissy.

Spend a couple of honest hours figuring out which car you got wrong--or go masterbate looking at your photo with the cancer stick in your pie-hole.

I think I speak for God when I say your last post was seriously over the line.

Also, why make Al backtrack for hours of research if you know offhand which car is incorrect?

Seems like you're just being an annoyance now, and not much help.  (Also, what is up with the Heart of Darkness reference?  Seriously, everyone else here "gets" this site.  If you don't, maybe you should find somewhere else.)

Fellow and Sister Field Hands:

A question for you:

Is Steven Hunt's comportment here (his most recent comment above being representative of frequent comments by him) what you want to be reading in this comments section?

One option I am more than willing to take is to refund his donations and relieve him of his copublisher status.

But since at other times, Mr. Hunt has been a rational participant in this forum, I hereby open up the floor to your comments and thoughts about the action that we come close to taking of weeding our commenting garden here.

If any of you don't feel comfortable advising me here, you all have my email address: narconews@gmail.com

Likewise, Steven: If you don't support the mission here, I'll be gracious and offer you a full refund on your way out the door.

Sincerely,

Al

Oh, and Steve - If it makes you feel any better, that refund will come out of my personal pocket, and not out of any organization's.

Al, most people here have watched you be vindictive on many occassions.

You pushed my buttons just right--and I responded.

When you questioned as to whether I was 'with your mission'--as though my personal loyalty and ethics were in question, that was over the top in my book.

There have been more than one occasion, as I mention above, when I have bit my lip--and when you direct your BS, authoritarian crap in my direction, you'll get it right back.

Just expressing my feelings and where I am coming from.  And I never requested a refund from you.

But you have been an over the top a-hole many times, for many years.

I forgave you, and I wanted to highlight the better aspects of your work and your character.

But if you can't take a little of what you dish-out, you are a lightweight.

If you rally the troops to ban me instead of working through our 'issues', you really are a hypocrite.  Just say'n.

Steven Hunt has repeatedly refused to link people to information he discusses in hist posts, even when repeatedly asked, because apparently creating internet hyperlinks reveals deficiencies in our mental capacity.

Regardless of what he does outside this community, that attitude tells me he has no intention of contributing positively to the community here; his interest in discussion here seems to be for the purpose of putting his intellect on display. There are plenty of other places on the internet where that is encouraged, but I have a feeling Al doesn't think that's true here.

Thoughts of a lurker here:

Think Hunt generally brings good posts to the blog. Having said that his las post was way out of order. Should really be deleted. Maybe it should not be deleted as the refererence to '...a dilapidated boat going into the heart of Africa on a mission.' tells me a lot about him, and so should be allowed to tell others too.

And Al I hope you stop all these talks of refunding people when you disagree with them or pull their co-publisher status. Is there something am missing? Like when one contributes to you he/she gets some life membership that cannnot be revoked unless a refund is given?

Cause I believe that contributions unless gotten under pretences really should not be refunded.

For the edification of others here--I edited a 'your' to 'you're in the post above.

Al, I am simply venting.

If this is all that it takes to get 'kicked off the island'...well, that's on you and your sense of what makes for a democratically-inclined 'community'.

Hypocrisy--it has to be exposed and hashed out.   Otherwise everyone here is rather 'McSame"  (If you will forgive the expression).

Jason Young--he agrees that Steven Hunt should be cast off the island for violations:  not linking topics he brings up, and...what else.

Not properly hyper-linking.  Oh my god.  How abhorrant!

And this happened right here in River City?!

And where do you think that the money that I donate to your 'mission' comes from Al?

There is no petite boug. nicities and comforts from where my contributitions to your 'mission' comes from.   Nothing associated with the gambler gaming of the US system of grotesque over-consumption and class parasiticsm.

What you get comes from my back, my blood, and my fucking sweat.

I can't smoke becasue if I did I could'nt work and couldn't eat.

Indulge yourselves.

This is Al's blog, we are invited to participate. An honorable guest doesn't go to a man's house, name-call, belittle and make cheap sexual comments. I was surprised and a bit embarrased  by such out-of-proportion, immature comments.

I've appreciated your participation in the past and if you want to stay and can agree that there is a degree of basic respect we all deserve here, that there is a value in the level of journalism and participation encouraged here, then I'd welcome your continued contributions.

Wan - No, there's no "lifetime agreement" and all copublishers signed an agreement that reserves Narco News the right to dismiss a copublisher at any time (although out of more than 400 copublishers it has only happened twice in five years, in very extreme situations). And no, there is no requirement to refund when that happens.

But one thing we've never done is deleted the comment of a co-publisher. And that's where Mr. Hunt's behavior presents a particular challenge. We know from experience that when a commenter starts making it all about himself, that chases other readers and commenters away (because, after all, people don't come here to read that sort of thing).

I'm actually much more concerned with somebody saying "you got your facts wrong" without being willing to correct the fact, than with any "insults" he may hurl my way. I don't really care about those, except as they affect the tone here. When somebody says, "spend two hours correcting" what is supposedly untrue, I see somebody that either lied about there being a factual error, or somebody for whom having the correct facts up there don't matter. Either one would concern me.

But basically, yes, you are right. We can dismiss him without refunding a cent. But given the history of how some copublishers came here not getting their refunds from a previous host, I would rather refund than repeat the mistakes of another. It's a tactical question, not a legal or strategic one.

Al runs his blog how he wants and how he always has, Steven.  You say he's been an over the top ahole for years but you've obviously continued to stick around and even "forgave him." That's sweet. Doesn't seem that Al is the one that can't take it, you're the one that blew a gasket.  To bring back HRC's call and response from last fall:  if you can't stand the heat...well you know the rest.     Just say'n....

And if any of your pathetic souls want to impute my Kurtz and 'heart of Darkness' metahpor in a vile light--than this bespeaks your own pathetic, small mindedness.

Al reminds me of Kurtz. We are all supposed to slog along and be silent, while Kurz writes the narrative. Any alternation in discourse is a personal attack against Kurtz--who is full of the empire's noble intent--but still incredibly ignorant and deluded in many ways. And the tragedy of it is that he refuses to edcuate himself, or empathize sufficiently, to realize that this all isn't a mere 'game' where everyone else are but bit players.

That isn't even remotely a democratic vision of collective news production.

Each of those little GEM cars costs almost $7000, so when you have three of them it starts to add up!

Agreed with Amy on the rest. Steven, please take your dispute with Al to email so as not to hijack the thread for the rest of us. Thanks!

Al, please, the problem is that it 'is all about you'.

Did you make sure that the colors of McLame's vehicles are all, in fact, accurate?

Give me a break.   YOu are being merely petty because I dared to call you out on your shit for the first time in over six months.

And, surely, you will get the requiste amount of syophants to vote me off the island.

In some other news, Bill Conroy's article is at the top of Digg right now!

Well, Al, is there a

Submitted September 21, 2008 - 9:01 pm by Steven Hunt

• edit

Al, lol--I didn't think that I had to put 'suped-up Maverick' in fucking quotes.

My bad.

This entire spat started with my frustration that you get too tight=assed at times, too literal when humor is being engaged.

You focus too intently and don't see the bigger picture, the levels of logic and humor/puns, etc.

You didn't even 'get it' when I elaborated, with the line about McLame spending Cindy's lucre on an 'origional Maverick' the first one.   I thought this was humorous--then you ordered me to 'stop playing'.

Al, kick me off the island if you must, but sometimes you should learn to play more.   Just say'n.

can we quit the snarking. There is an election to win.

I really don't care what kind of cars McCain has. I do care that he is so out of touch with ordinary people. I also happened to see on HufPo a car labeled as a Maverick. I have no idea if it is or not.

I think that Steven should be allowed to stay.

To be honest, I thought you were being serious as well, I even made a joke assuming you were being serious. Oh well.

I said that Steven sould stay....let me add on to that...

He should stay as long as he can stop with the ego trip and go back to the real life shit we are all here for.

Al, I know it is hard..but let him be the ego tripper...just let it go.

No comment on the issues, but I don't see the benefit of the drama.

Oh, I have the perfect solution. Steven Hunt ... the man of a thousand words even after a thousand words have been spoken, who never concedes, is worthy not of banishment, but of his own island.

I vote that Steven, who has his own co-publisher account, by his own accord, and the force of his intellect, agree to start his own thing, on his own co-publisher account.

Given that he is of such superior intellect and insight, I suspect he will soon have a huge following and all of this ill will ... will be aleviated.

What say you Steven? Can you make it on your own in this cyber reality, absent leaching off of another blog?

If you can, I will be the first to concede your victory. If you can't, then know your place, even if you don't particularly like it, and like a good football player, learn to earn one yard at a time until you find your place on the roster.

It's the real world man, not your playground.

That's my two cents, now prepare for about three to four rebuttals from Steve on space created with blood, sweat and tears over many years by other people.

Take up the challenge, Mr. Steve, or shut your pie hole and learn to play in civil society, realizing you are just as smart and stupid as the rest of us -- and not guaranteed anything when it comes to an audience that you have not earned on your own.

What say you, man, chicken? Or are you up to the challenge. Surely you will be an overnight phenom in this global village, right?

Should you not be up to the challenge, it's just a matter of thinking of more than yourself when you post the next comment, and realizing that everytime you pick your nose, the world is not somehow better off.

I say that with all sincerity and the experience of both failure and success in this world of 26 letters over the past 30 years. You have access to the same 26 letters of the alphabet all the great English writers of history have, and the rest of us for that matter, so you should have no problem accepting the challenge. If you are insulted by my approach here, prove me wrong. Since you obviously believe you have already earned the respect of the masses you purport to represent, it should be a slam dunk for you.

It's not in my nature to be so dismissive, but you've earned it. I tire of your petulence, and really prefer your more profound moments, which I grant you are capable of displaying. So I'd rather see you on your own, in all its splendid glory, allowing me to take in your words as I choose, and not being forced to digest them in the middle of this blog absent predetermination. Short of that, I'd prefer you display a characteristic required of all writers, but which you seem to lack on most occassions: Empathy and overstanding.

Now, as far as Mavericks go, I used to own one; in fact my first car, with a 350 V8, rusted through the floorboards, but it took off like a rocket -- and would flip itself if you didn't ride the break a bit when you punched it.  

So what's your f...k..g point? You don't have one really as far as I can see?

By the way, my Maverick died in the mountains of Colorado, left on the side of the road. Maybe that's the one you're talking about ... 'cause a 350 in a Maverick is pretty rare; maybe some rich folk scooped it up and rebuilt the engine and you know all about it.

But I suspect you thought you were being funny, playing on the Maverick meme, but no one got it because, you see, when you're smarter than the rest of us, no one expects you to be capable of empathizing with the basic human condition of genuine humor, what's more laughing at yourself. You prefer to laugh at others, it seems, a condition that really can't be cured without self-examination and a healthy dose of getting back what you give out. Some folks call that Karma.

That's why I suggest doing your own thing ... be your own man, and we will all follow you, like lemmings over the cliff. Go for it. Let go of the brake. Punch the gas on that Maverick.

If you don't trust my advice on that front, I don't blame you.

so I don't have a vote here, but I hate to see this stuff getting in the way of the purpose of this website. It's very unclear to me why Steve Hunt is on this website if he's so unhappy with it -- the Internet is a very big place, after all. Anyway, Al, squash the drama one way or the other and get back to the issues.

This is an email that I got from ColoradansForObama with a really great video of Rednecks for Obama.  I really enjoyed it.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Ok I have to admit I am a member of this my bo group
SouthsideVARuralRednecksferObama

because I love their chat. But today they sent out this and it's
great!!!!!!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfq4lgjIv2U

Enjoy!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfq4lgjIv2U

Steve, I think you're entitled to your opinions, including those critical of Al. I've enjoyed many of your contributions to date. But in this thread, you seem to have gone bizerk. None of us is perfect. Not you, not me, not Al, and no one else.

At times I've felt that certain people have been handled in a manner that felt a bit heavy and it made me uncomfortable. But this is Al's blog. We come here to read his analysis and opinions. Thus, it seems to me we have an obligation to be polite, even when we don't agree with how everything is handled.

In my book, that doesn't mean one can't speak up and express an opinion. But it's important to do so in a respectful manner. Many of your comments in this thread have been anything but.

If you could dial back your words, lower the intensity, and respectfully share your opinions going forward, I'd want you to stay on.

I remember a few months back when you switched to being really down on Obama, saying basically that he was a sellout and just a tool for the corporate status quo.  Some of us on this here blog, including me, quizzed you on why the sudden judgement against him.  It didn't seem to make sense, given your previous statements, and after some discussion in the comments at that time, you adjusted your take on Obama to one of watchful optimism, saying that you would do what you could to help Obama get elected.  I for one have appreciated your contributions here, but don't think that, as someone who doesn't hold back in expressing himself, you should be offended at being taken to task by Al.

What do you think Al is trying to do here, anyway?  And what is your purpose in participating here?  I don't believe that you really think Al is in this for some kind of selfish glory.  Or that you believe that you can't stand to learn something at times.  We all are here to learn, imo. I made a flippant comment last week that got cut, and rightly so.

The frequency of misspelled words in your posts might have led me to constantly needle you about it, if I wanted to be petty.  But your intent is what I care about, not the perfection of your presentation.  If I followed your example of today, I would joke about your spelling and scold you for not working hard enough at your posts, such that people ought to question your thinking and seriousness of purpose.

By all means, point out faults and correct them.  But don't be a drama queen about it.  It will be a relief to get back to civilized discussion.

Yes, Al can be tough, enough to make me wince a couple of times...but I believe we're all intelligent enough here to take a breath and consider each other's opinion and reflect a bit, and if necessary agree to disagree, or keep debating, with mutual respect.

I will never mistake you for a Pollyanna, Steven, but I value your thoughtful contributions.

Steven - I have no problem with you having your own opinions and stating them logically and offering something new to the discourse. In fact, many times I enjoy reading your posts because they present a side that I had usually never thought of. However, when you point out a supposed error and refuse to identify it so that, that is merely immature and small of you. Honestly, it reminds me of a elementary school, "I know something you don't know" kind of mentality. As to whether that should get you removed as a co-publisher, well, I'm not sure. My opinion, though, is that you deserve another chance to be a valuable part of the community here. I know I've gotten things wrong before too, but I would have hated to be 'evicted' over it. I'm definitely not in favor of censorship, but for me, my real mission is not for Al, but for Obama, so that is the mission I am most concerned with, and anything detrimental to HIS (Obama's) mission, should not be tolerated from our side of the pond. This goes for chicken littling, armchair quarterbacking or anything else. When we're trying to formulate valid attacks against McCain, it really doesn't help our own cause for them to be factually inaccurate because as Al said in a previous posting, this just brings down the entire statement.

disagreement about posts (including mine) is best dealt off-Field.

My $ 0.03.

amk

Folks:

Steven can now submit moderated comments if he wishes, and it's back to our regular programming.

As our comments policy discloses to all: "don’t spread false claims or rumors, don’t gratuitously insult other commenters, and don’t... hijack the thread."

And by the way, the photos of the car models (which had already taken a good chunk of time to compile) are accurate.

From here on out, no more drama.

- Al

I just finished reading thru the thread and it seems this started out as snark (I REALLY don't like that word so let's say started out as joking sarcasm) by Steven's comment about a Maverick car. That sarcasm was not apparent to me or AL or others and on it went. 

Then the conversation descends into a typical testosterone level of who can't take it, etc. etc.  Isn't this how wars break out?  And then we have people who aren't co-publishers making their pronouncements about it all!

My vote is to definitely not vote Steven off the island since this was an unfortunate misunderstanding.  We all have our idioscycracies and I know some of the things I write are not compatible with Al's thinking and I appreciate the opportunity to post those thoughts.  We need variety of thought and expression (and Steven gives us that in spades!) but it is also appropriate that  Al lets us know when we are not on target with the goals of his blog.  

@ Steven - Al having rules of the road here doesn't mean there isn't freedom of speech.  I look at blogs as representing freedom of speech and freedom of peaceable assembly.  Comments that are distractive and disruptive are similar to a protestor trying to shout down a speaker.  That protester rightly gets taken out of the hall as that activity does not fit within the definition of peaceable assembly. 

So IMHO you are being a bit disengenuous both to yourself and us by making inflammatory statements about Al not being able to take what he dishes out.

Now if we could only figure out when you are just being jokingly sarcastic without having to add the word (snark)...  Doesn't adding that word ruin the whole thing in the same way telling a joke and having to say "joke" after it?

I didn't see your comments until after I hit "post comment"

Meanwhile, in the real world, the Obama campaign is pulling out of North Dakota and shifting resources to Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Also, a new Rasmussen poll confirms that North Carolina is in danger of turning blue. The internal polling apparently showing the same, McCain (after having already decided to start buying ad time) is upping its ground game in the state and Obama is still campaigning there in person.

And finally, Minnesota seems back to where it's supposed to be, solidly in Obama's corner.

Obama 52 McCain 44

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/minnesota/election_2008_minnesota_presidential_election

Entertaining. Watch while you're having your coffee.

 Steven, many times I have laughed at your comments, twice I have wept, and numerous times I had no idea what the hell you were trying to say. Today, I just rolled my eyes and thought, Mr. Overly-Wordy has lost his temper. I hope you have chilled by now and are back in the green grass of the field. This is a community, we should be good to each other. I hope this is all worked out by now.